Tomatoes - A colorful history

Really good info here, thanks.

This is my favorite too. It’s the best of all the “Green When Ripe” tomato varieties I have tried which include Aunt Ruby’s German and Green Cherokee. Too bad I don’t have space to squeeze it in this year. Too many new ones to try.

OK, I will remind you , victory seeds has these plus a couple I really wanted, so I may order them. They have Old Detroit and Old Detroit no 17. Extremely rare tomatoes from MI. So I think I will order them just to keep the heirlooms growing. They also carry plants from the Dwarf Tomato Project. i wanted to try Mr Snow and others.
I want to try Green Giant too, I heard it makes an unreal green ketchup!

All the same save extra seeds anyway! What I really need to do is grow out a bunch, but I don’t have the time or the room. Maybe if you want to grow some out for both of us, that would be helpful. I have about 25 varieties where I only have about 5 seeds. Of course I know you have your own you need to grow out.
Maria send me a few seeds of a bunch of Russian tomatoes, and I asked Marsha for some too. Those tomatoes should work well here.

Could you list those top five?

I’m going to try Green Giant. It is the favorite green of Craig LeHoullier, the founder of the dwarf tomato project, and author of 2 books so far. I also want to try malachite Box tomato too. Maybe next winter I can trade one of you guys for Green Giant.

Green Giant
90 days, indeterminate
— ‘Green Giant’ is a sturdy, potato leaf type plant producing large (up
to 32 ounce), oblate-shaped, beefsteak type fruits that are juicy but
meaty and with very small seed cavities. They are green with a slight
yellowish tinge on the blossom end when at the eating stage. The flavor
is intense and not what you’d expect judging it by its color. It is
great for slicing.
this variety is from heirloom tomato
collector Craig LeHoullier who received them from tomato collector
Reinhard Kraft of Neukirchen, Germany.

History

Craig LeHoullier identified Green Giant as an unusual variety while perusing Reinhard Kraft’s tomato database web site,
in that it is the first known potato leaf, green fruited variety.
Reinhard indicates that he selected Green Giant as an unexpected potato
leaf seedling in a regular leaf Green variety (name unknown, but he
indicated he thought it was from Canada). Upon request, Reinhard shared
seeds with Craig in 2004. Craig obtained a mix of potato leaf
(predominant) and regular leaf seedlings, and grew out a potato leaf
plant which matched the picture on the web site. It was the best
tasting tomato of Craig’s garden that year, and it was clear that this
would become a popular variety once it made its way into commerce.
Craig shared the seeds with others, and it found its way into the SSE
yearbook and seed catalogs.

If you could only grow one which would it be? I usually only plant one tomato in a little hill in the yard. I used to grow a large garden but now focus more on other things. I still must have a tomato, homegrown they just can’t be beat.

I tried Green Giant a couple of years back. It had lots of lush growth but wasn’t productive for me. The taste didn’t seem to stand out. Perhaps I need to give it a 2nd chance. Keep us posted on your experience with this variety.

Ginny,
you have beautiful tomatoes! Maybe next season we’ll trade some?

Drew,
the top 10 for 2014 were 1. Rozovyi Med, 2. Malachite box, 3. Chocolate stripes, 4-5. Yablochniy Lipetskiy and Babushkino, 6-7. Black krim and Orange Russian 117, 8-9. Orlinyi kluv and Mazarini, 10. Orange German strawberry

Top ten for 2015 were 1. Chocolate stripes, 2. Malachite box, 3. Orange German strawberry, 4. Yablochniy Lipetskiy, 5. Babushkino, 6. Orange Russian, 7-8-9. Wolford’s miracle (I am not sure about the right translation here), Zagadka prirody (nature’s riddle), Chudo zemli (earth’s miracle), 10. Rozovyi med (pink honey).

As you can see they go in circles. There were many other varieties, those were the most voted for.

Sounds like a plan Antmary! :smile:

Drew, I grow out tomatoes for a lot of family and friends, so I really don’t have the time to grow more than I can handle at the moment. I cut back on varieties a bit. So many tomatoes, so little time… I need to nip it in the bud soon because I am not getting any younger, and I feel mid way through the summer that it feels more like a chore rather than something I should be enjoying. I garden on my own, but my husband will rototill. Last year, and in previous years, I grow around 300 - 400 tomato plants. I give half away, and grow the rest for tomatoes for canning, family and to give away to the senior center etc… This year I am only growing a few favorites and trying a number of new ones. I am hoping to find a few more tomatoes that do well in my zone, taste great for slicers, canning, and have good production.(Even though I have a number of heirlooms that fit this description, I cannot resist new to me varieties) I am growing more greens, winter squash and garlic. More fruit, figs and citrus. I need to stay off of the tomato forums as they are addicting. :grin:

1 Like

Derby, can you tell me what you are looking for in a tomato? Are you looking for a great tasting, productive slicer?? Do you want a sweet tomato or a well balanced flavored tomato? One with a nice old fashioned zing with a zippy flavor? What zone are you in?

Ginny

Zone six, mid west, south west Missouri. A big meaty slicer, with a strong tomato flavor, soft and juicy.

Yeah I know, I’ll get it done eventually! I have some extra rooted figs, if you need them. Excel, Sal’s GS, and Hardy Chicago. Otherwise I’m giving them away. Just send some tomato seeds next winter if you want them.

Well sometimes tomatoes perform well in one region and not another. I think I’m going to try Malachite Box this year too. Aunt Ruby’s German Green, may just taste better in MI than it does in CA. I rely more on reports from my region. A good example is Brandywine is often reported as a poor performer in the west, although not here. Many heat loving tomatoes do poorly in MI. Always exceptions. Some in CA do well with brandywine. Don Shorr a radio garden guy, owns a nursery in Davis CA, Is a master gardener. He can spell any genus-species name of any plant you can name. A true plant nerd, says don’t grow brandywine in CA. Farmer Fred also thinks brandywine sucks. He is out of Sacramento.
I like Farmer Fred. He has 10 rules of gardening. One is “All gardening is local!” Another is “Everything you know is wrong.”

Sorry for late response…

Here are a few really good meaty slicers with good tomato flavor (keep in mind every ones taste perception is different), Brandywine: Excellent sandwich tomato, sometimes a bit stingy in production in a hot summer.
German Johnson, Red Barn, Old Brooks, Daniels, Box Car Willie, Stump Of The World, Druzba, Daniels, Terhune, … So many more heirlooms that are wonderful. If you go to Tatiana’s Tomatobase, she has a wonderful list of heirlooms etc., along with pictures and descriptions of people who grew the fruit out. :slight_smile:

Good luck!

Ginny

Thank you for the suggestions, I will research these and see if I can settle on one for this summer. That was a little unfair asking someone that grows that many kinds of tomatoes to pick one, lol. Obviously you like many different kinds.

Thank you for the offer Drew. I would love some more hardy figs for my area eventually, but, for now I have my hands full. As soon as we finish our sunroom, and seeing how much room I have leftover after I place all the potted citrus, bananas and figs etc inside, then I will have a better idea of where I stand for adding more plants. :smile:

For me it would be Paul Robeson. It has a deep, rich, sometimes smoky flavor that none of the other black tomatoes come close to. Unfortunately for me it doesn’t do that great disease wise even when I spray it with ?? neem oil ?? (for some reason, the name of what I spray escapes me, but I have to spray this and Green Zebra to keep them alive long enough to harvest a couple rounds). Other blacks that I grow like Black Krim don’t require spraying in my area (northern VA) but the flavor doesn’t compare to Paul Robeson.

OK, well I have a lot, and once bigger I can take cuttings of any of them. I’ll give away the small plants for now, but again cuttings will be available. Do grow out some seed for me. Being so adapted to MI it would be foolish of me not to ask.

I should have some Malachite Box tomato seeds saved from my own plant if you need them. I’m not sure if they will come true to type though as I did not bag blossoms. Well, I did try to bag but those bagged blossoms did not set. I gave up bagging after that.

Indeed the Brandywine’s performance in my garden has been inconsistent in terms of productivity. I had wanted to stop growing it but was afraid that I might regret by summer if none of the new ones is anywhere close to Brandywine in taste.

Thanks Z9 I bought some from Baker, so I’m all set!
I grow a lot of tomatoes in pots so was looking at the Dwarf Tomato Project
I heard Craig LeHoullier on the radio and he named the top 15 or so from the 60 varieties they developed (all are for sale at various seed companies) One was Tastywine.
These sound extremely interesting only growing to 4 feet but producing full size tomatoes. The project has been ongoing for over 10 years now on Tomatoville.
Some have very unique colors, although taste was always the first priority.
Another Brandywine cross with I think Cherokee Purple in there too is Brandyfred.
Most are sold out for the year. Next year I’ll be trying some.

1 Like